Chapter 57
With Tango One in the air and the GPS data from the dispatcher, it wasn’t hard to find Raj.
Erickson pulled behind him and spun up his lights.
We followed in the Porsche.
Raj kept driving down Pelican Way. The passenger in his back seat craned her neck to look through the rear window.
Raj didn't stop.
Erickson got on the loudspeaker and commanded him to pull over.
Raj kept rolling at a normal speed for a little while, then he decided to step on the gas.
The chase was on.
The dirtbag weaved in and out of traffic, and we followed.
He banked a hard left at the next intersection, tires squealing.
Horns honked as he cut off oncoming traffic. Cars jammed brakes, and grills ate pavement.
I don't know what he was thinking. He wasn't going to outrun a helicopter.
When the traffic cleared, Erickson gave chase, and we were right on his tail. With lights blazing, the squad car streaked down a residential street, screaming past trash cans and mailboxes.
Raj blew through the stop sign, taking a hard right. His passenger freaked out in the back.
The dirtbag took a quick left, careening through the neighborhood, then a right onto Paradise Park. That's where he got into trouble.
We followed and caught up to him.
An accident at the intersection had slowed traffic to a standstill in both directions.
Raj flung open his door, hopped out, and sprinted across the oncoming lane. He darted into another residential neighborhood.
I sprang from the Porsche and gave chase.
The little bastard was pretty quick.
He craned his neck over his shoulder with wide eyes as I gained on him.
A woman on a bicycle headed toward us. With a helmet and bike shorts, she was out getting her exercise.
Raj stuck his arm out and clotheslined her.
She flopped off the bike and landed flat on her back, smacking the asphalt.
The bike kept cruising down the road without her, rolling past me.
With the wind knocked out of her lungs, she groaned in agony.
Raj grabbed her, yanked her to her feet, and put a knife to her throat. With panicked eyes, he shouted at me, "Back off. I’ll kill her! I swear."
I guess Raj figured he was going down for murder anyway—what was kidnapping?
The rotor blades of Tango One thumped overhead as the chopper circled.
"Looks like you’re having a bad day," I said to Raj, trying to diffuse the situation.
"No fucking shit, Sherlock!"
"Doesn't have to be this way.”
He glanced around as patrol cars screeched onto the scene from all directions, boxing him in.
Lights flashed.
It wouldn’t be long before camera crews were on the scene.
"Tell the cops to clear out, or she dies!" Raj shouted.
"Let me help you," I said. "How about you put the knife down, let the girl go, and nobody gets hurt?”
"You're not listening to me," he growled, pressing the knife tighter against her skin.
I raised my hands in surrender and took a step back.
The other officers were out of their cars, using them as cover, their weapons drawn.
"Walk me through this," I said to Raj. “If you kill her, what do you think is going to happen to you?”
Raj glanced around at the cops, then up at the helicopter that circled. He fidgeted with nervous energy, shifting his weight from side to side. The knife was tight against the woman’s throat. With fear in his eyes, he shouted at me again, "I told you to back off!"
The woman reached into a belly pack and pulled out a can of mace. She sprayed Raj in the face and spun away.
He screamed and flailed about, his eyes swelling shut, burning like fire ant bites.
I rushed and tackled the dirtbag. We crashed to the ground. He was a skinny little runt, and I put all my weight onto him. The knife clattered away, and I ratcheted the cuffs around his wrists and read him his rights.
The smell of capsaicin lingered in the air.
The other deputies converged.
"My eyes! My eyes!" Raj cried as I marched him to a squad car and stuffed him into the back. “I can’t see!”
I hurried to the woman to check on her. "Are you okay?"
Out of breath and hunched on her knees at the trauma, she nodded. "Thank you. I owe you my life."
I shook my head. "You saved yourself."
Paris and her crew closed in. The camera focused on the woman. "You just suffered a traumatic experience. What are your first thoughts?"
The woman looked at Paris like she was crazy. "I'm happy my kid will get to see his mother tonight.”
Jack finally made his way through traffic and pulled to the scene.
I told him the story.
We drove to the station, filled out after-action reports, then interrogated Raj.
Of course, he blamed everything on his co-conspirators and swore up and down that he didn't stab the girl. "She was totally down," he said. "She wanted to go with me and my friends. I dropped her off, and they took her to the warehouse. I had no idea they were going to abuse her like that.”
His story didn't hold water. "Why did you continue to the sorority house after they picked her up?”
"Because dispatch tracks everything I do. I'm telling you, that girl was totally down to party."
"No. She wasn't totally down to party, and you know it."
"Hey, she was alive when I left her with Keith and Sheldon."
I gave him a doubtful look.
I don't know how Raj thought he was going to worm his way out of this one, but it wasn't going to work. He wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but he was smart enough to ask for a lawyer.
That was the end of the interview.
We left the interrogation room and chatted with Daniels in the hallway. I was reasonably certain all of them were going away for a long time.
JD and I felt accomplished, but we had one more loose end to tie up.